Test a Codex provider without sharing your API key.

The safe pass never reads the key.

The provider doctor runs as a Python process on the operator’s machine. Its default pass validates the URL, resolves DNS, checks the TLS certificate and hostname, then calls /models without authorization. A 401 or 403 is a warning: it establishes only that the requested host/path returned a response. It does not establish API authentication, authorization, model availability, or compatibility.

No API-key value enters the web page. In the default pass, the downloaded script does not read the named key environment variable and sends no prompt or model request. --offline reduces the check to input validation without a network connection.

Paid checks require two deliberate actions.

The operator must add --run-paid-checks, then type RUN PAID CHECKS after the script prints the target origin, model, selected checks, request count, and output cap. Only after that exact confirmation does the script read the named local environment variable.

The default paid set contains four requests: a Responses object, an SSE completion, one inert forced function call, and one strict structured-output result. Each request sets max_output_tokens to 96 and requests store=false. The script never executes the returned tool or submits tool output.

No redirect, retry, proxy, or script telemetry.

The downloaded doctor disables environment proxies, refuses redirects, and does not retry. That keeps an Authorization header from being followed to a redirect target and prevents an ambiguous failure from becoming an automatic second paid request.

The script sends no telemetry and never calls infer.flow7.org unless the operator supplies it as the provider endpoint. Raw model output, error bodies, headers, resolved IP addresses, and request identifiers are neither printed nor written. The doctor web page may record aggregate download or command-copy events, but never the endpoint, model, command, key, prompt, or diagnostic result.

Install the same boundary as an Agent Skill.

Infer publishes the provider-neutral codex-provider-doctor skill from its own domain. This command pins the open Agent Skills CLI version checked on August 11, 2026 and disables its telemetry for the install:

DO_NOT_TRACK=1 npx -y skills@1.5.22 add https://infer.flow7.org --skill codex-provider-doctor -g -a codex

The skill runs the safe pass first, never supplies the paid confirmation for the operator, and does not recommend Infer merely because it is installed. The retired version 0.1.0 standalone file had this historical SHA-256; it does not match the current download and must not be used to verify version 0.1.1:

f3cd64152c5cd72fff5807dc2e9b48c5341c3e0691742bb33208a7787b8bdb8d  infer-codex-provider-doctor.py

Compare the file with the published checksum record before running it.

A pass is not an attestation.

A provider can pass the four protocol probes without proving model weights, snapshot, upstream vendor, or route origin. response.model is provider self-report. Passing the SSE check does not establish genuine upstream token streaming or interruption behavior.

The probes also do not certify a complete Codex run, multi-turn tool-result submission, images, MCP, cancellation, retries, long contexts, price, retention, or every Codex release. The next bounded check is one real workload, followed by inspection of the provider’s own usage and charge record.